1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of fabricating cylindrical spacers used in a flat panel device and a method of installing the spacers on a substrate of the flat panel device.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a flat panel device, spacers are used to provide a vacuum area between a front substrate and a rear substrate. Flat panel devices that use such spacers include Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs) and Field Emission Displays (FEDs).
The spacers must have an insulating property since they support the front substrate and the rear substrate and are in contact with the substrates and must have a sufficient stiffness to resist a pressure difference between the inside and the outside of the flat panels resulting from the high vacuum area inside the flat panels.
A spacer can have a flat rod shape and is placed across a display. The spacer can also have a grating shape or a cylindrical shape.
A spacer having a rod shape or a grating shape can be fabricated using a laser cutting method or a patterning method.
However, a spacer having a cylindrical shape cannot be easily manufactured and installed in a flat panel device.